Frydenberg plays down RBA growth outlook

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg insists there is little difference between the economic growth forecast in his federal budget released last month and the Reserve Bank's latest predictions.

The independent central bank again downgraded its growth forecasts in Friday's quarterly statement on monetary policy, lowering its prediction for 2018/19 to 2.25 per cent from 2.5 per cent previous and is now in line with the budget.

But for 2019/20 it cut the outlook to 2.5 per cent compared with 2.75 per cent in Mr Frydenberg's budget.

"It's only a quarter of a percentage point lower than what was in our budget," Mr Frydenberg told Sky News on Sunday.

He noted that the budget predicted an unemployment rate of five per cent across the four-year forward estimate, while the Reserve Bank is predicting a jobless rate of 4.75 per cent in June 2021.

"It's slightly swings and roundabouts. The differences are not major," the treasurer said.

"The underlying fundamentals of the Australian economy are strong."

The Reserve Bank had been forecasting a growth outlook above three per cent late last year.